I thoroughly enjoyed running. Running was my true form of stress relief. A good, hard run enabled me to completely clear my head, feel good about myself, and enjoy the day. If I was unable to complete a good run, I found myself to become irritable and grouchy.

Approximately 2 years ago, I injured my left hamstring muscles. It was a deep injury, and I had no choice but to take some time off from running. But because I desperately needed my stress relief, I took only two weeks off and started back. I significantly cut down my milage, and I did fairly well. At this time though, I was not even close to being completely healed. Even though I knew I was most likely going to re-injure myself, I kept running, despite the discomfort in my left hamstring, hoping the pain would just magically disappear one day.

Eventually, my hamstring healed. However, every time I ran on my injured left leg, my body was compensating. My right side endured most of the stress of the running as I inadvertently put less pressure on my left side.

Naturally, I developed another injury. My right knee was injured at that point, and has not been healthy for the last two years. I decided to completely stop running.

Turning to a different form of exercise to help clear my mind, I began fully focusing on yoga. As I increased my practice to four or five days a week, it was extremely difficult for me to properly do two of the more basic poses, Warrior I and Warrior II. It did not matter if my right leg was positioned back or forward in the lunge. These positions were very uncomfortable and it was difficult for me to move in and out of these poses with any degree of ease.

It was not until the July Yoga Teacher Training with Laurel (200 hr) that I recognized that I was not aligning myself correctly in either the Warrior I or Warrior II poses. My instructor, without knowing about my injury, made two simple suggestions that have eased my pain tremendously. As I was in the Warrior I pose, she asked me to try and push the heel and pinky toe of the rear leg into the ground, using my inner thigh muscles to try and pull the arch of the foot slightly off the ground. At the same time, she instructed me to do the same with the leg that was positioned forward in the lunge. Finally, in that position, she suggested I simultaneously attempt to draw in from, or contract, the inner thigh muscles in both legs. This immediately relieved the discomfort in my right knee.

Since that day, I have been vigilant about the alignment techniques of contraction and expansion. Because of Laurel’s detailed instruction, I am now able to easily move into and out of the Warrior I and Warrior II postures with absolutely no discomfort. In addition, not only did I refine these basic yoga poses, but I am almost completely pain free in performing them, as well as in everyday life. The power of yoga is truly amazing.